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Intel Analysts to Study Climate Change
Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., went a step further, sponsoring an amendment to prohibit "environmental spying." The proposal failed.
"Our government should not commit expensive spy satellites and human intelligence sources to target something as undefined as the environment," Issa said.
  U.S. delegate Harlan Walson attends the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change at United Nations office in Bangkok, on Monday April 30, 2007. A major climate meeting opened Monday in the Thai capital with delegates addressing how the world's governments can best take action now to avoid the dire consequences of a warming planet. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit) (Sakchai Lalit - AP) Special Report
Read complete Post coverage on the science and politics surrounding the threat of human-induced climate change.
IN THE GREENHOUSE: Follow the Post series on the science behind confronting a changing climate. |
The committee chairman, Rep. Silvestre Reyes, D-Texas, dismissed suggestions the committee was doing a disservice to intelligence agencies and stressed the national security need for such research. "Climate change can have a serious impact on military operations and exacerbate global tensions," he said.
A Democratic committee aide also said the vast majority of the information used by intelligence analysts could come from unclassified, openly available sources and data in the government's possession. The aide was authorized to speak to reporters only if not identified.
The aide said that the committee's deliberations focused extensively on a recent report from 11 top-ranking retired military officers who found that global climate change presents a national security threat that could affect the country and military operations, as well as heighten global tensions.
Retired Army Gen. Gordon Sullivan, chairman of a military advisory board that drafted the report, said the review avoided politics by looking at the possible security implications of climate change, not examining the science behind it.
"In my view, the trend suggests that we should apply some scholarship _ some security-related scholarship _ to this issue so we understand the implications of what appears to be significant changes in our climate," he said.
The report examined how climate change could lead to social destabilization. Among other findings, it said that impaired access to food and water, violent weather, rising sea levels and other changes may create large numbers of migrants and raise tensions.
"Many governments, even some that look stable today, may be unable to deal with these new stresses," the report said. "When governments are ineffective, extremism can gain a foothold."
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On the Net:
National Intelligence Council: http:/
House Intelligence Committee: http:/
Report from the retired military officers: http:/
